George Peper: Red Zones
Golf and football have more in common than gaudy outfits, writes George Peper in the Fall 2024 issue of LINKS Magazine.
A Chat with Putter Boy
After holding the same pose for 112 years, it’s no surprise golf’s eternal child has become a little bent One of the game’s oldest living statues, Pinehurst’s iconic Putter Boy turned 112 this year. Despite his advanced age, the lad’s mind remains sharp—indeed acerbic—and he was gracious enough to grant LINKS Magazine a rare interview […]
George Peper: Rooting for the Story at the Masters
These days, it’s not so much who wins the Masters but how the victory unfolds The Masters is once again upon us, and along with it comes the perennial question we ask ourselves and others: Who are you rooting for? There was a time when that question was easy for me to answer. Back when […]
George Peper: The PGA Tour’s Big Bet is No Sure Thing
Gambling on the pros may now be legal, but the biggest bet in golf is on the future of the PGA Tour We recently published a feature article on the explosive growth of gambling on professional golf, a practice that’s now legal in all but about 10 states. The author of the piece is Jason […]
George Peper: On Taking a Break from Golf
Golf and I are currently separated. No pity, please—I haven’t missed a shot in months. The last time I played golf was March. Okay, maybe I did sneak in three rounds in June (a member-guest with my son), but other than that, not so much as a chip shot in the past six months. That’s […]
George Peper: Let’s Put the Pros on the Clock
It’s time for the PGA Tour to identify, embarrass, and punish its worst offenders If you’re a major league baseball fan, you’re likely loving the game more than ever this year thanks to a number of innovations, most notably a pitch clock that forces pitchers to deliver their fastballs faster. The result has been a […]
George Peper: The Ultimate Driving Machine
The walk-on player filling out your foursome may soon be a robot Roughly 30 years ago, I had a nutty idea. Actually, I had a bunch of nutty ideas back then, but this was one of the more colossally nutty ones. As editor of GOLF Magazine, one of my duties was to act as sort […]
George Peper: A Call for Kinder Golf Courses
Having suffered through a generation that produced some regrettably brutish golf courses, we may now be in remission Thirty-five years ago, when George Bush famously called for a “kinder, gentler nation,” at the 1988 Republican Convention he was referring to the overall state of American society, but he could just as well have been talking […]
The Most Resonating Courses in Golf
Some golf courses have a unique and unmistakable sense of place. The ancient Romans had an expression: genius loci, or sense of place. Their belief was that every city and town had its own spiritual identity, the way it was experienced, imagined, yearned for, and held in the heart and soul. Now, 3,000 years later, […]
George Peper: 50 Years in St. Andrews
My half century of memories of the world’s greatest town The 150th playing of the world’s oldest golf event, the Open Championship, is now upon us as the competition returns to the Old Course at St. Andrews for a record 30th time. I count among the greatest blessings of my life that I’ve been able […]